Minutes to midnight
Subtitle: history and the Anthropocene era from 1763
By: Paul Dukes
Series: Anthem world history
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9780857287793; 9780857287809
Subjects: Global environmental change; HISTORY / Modern / General; Nature; Science and civilization; Human ecology; Modern History; Effect of human beings on
Description: "The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a group of atomic scientists to symbolise the perils facing humanity from nuclear weapons. In 2007 it was set at five minutes before the final bell, including for the first time the threat of climate change as well as new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology. This book aims at an analysis of the evolution of our present predicament throughout the Anthropocene Era beginning in 1763, making special reference to the history of the period, the study of the subject and major advances in the natural sciences.  Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson set out the basis for a scientific approach to the pre-industrial stages of historical development in the Enlightenment of the late eighteenth century, when the American and French Revolutions created a vocabulary of modernity. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as the industrial revolution unfolded in several stages, nationalism, imperialism and totalitarianism were among the phenomena impeding the update of the Enlightenment programme as well as the fulfilment of the aspirations of 1776 and 1789. Our present predicament demands a rigorous examination of its origins and an assertion of a scientific pandisciplinary approach involving history and other academic specialisations"--

"The book examines the evolution of the predicament symbolised by the setting of the Doomsday Clock at a few minutes to midnight in the context of the Anthropocene Era from 1763, making special reference to the study of history throughout the period. It seeks to demonstrate the necessity for history as science, while pointing out the inadequacy of some previous approaches. It argues for a pandisciplinary approach to today's crisis"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Preface 1. Introduction: Times and Approaches 2. Enlightenment and Revolutions, 1763-1815 3. Nations and -Isms, 1815-1871 4. Natural Selection, 1871-1921 5. From Relativity to Totalitarianism, 1921-1945 6. Superpower, 1945-1968 7. Planet Earth, 1968-1991 8. Minutes to Midnight, 1991- Notes.